How to Find Open Access Journals: A Guide for Early-Career Researchers
Open Access Week 2025 has brought the scholarly community together to determine the way forward for knowledge sharing in a time of disruption. While we contemplate on who owns our knowledge, it is important to ensure that the knowledge is shared on the right platform. Here’s a brief guide for early-career researchers on how to find open access journals on reliable platforms.
Directory of Open Access Journals
List of Publishers Supporting Open Access Journals
Directory of Open Access Journals
The Directory of Open Access Journals1 (DOAJ) is the first site that you would visit when you target open access journals. This extensive database is community driven and known for its diverse collection of genuine, high-quality open access journals.
Here’s how you can go about searching for journals on this website. You can filter the search either by journals or articles and refine your search further based on the subject, ISSN, publisher, or country of publisher among other options.
Searching for Journals
Say you wish to submit your research paper to a specific publisher (e.g., Wiley, Taylor & Francis, or Elsevier) but are not sure which of the journals under that publishing house support open access publishing.
- Start by looking for your preferred publisher and then refine your search further.
- On the left-hand side, you will see a list of features such as Subjects, Languages, Licenses, Peer Review Types, and Publisher Countries, among others.
- Select your preferences under each of these features and gradually narrow down the list of journals.
- You will also have an option to filter out “journals without fees” or “journals that allow authors to retain all rights” after publication. If you are on a limited budget, you can choose one of the journals that do not charge article processing charges (APCs).
- The search results will give you a list of journals along with a link to their official website. This should help you access the specific journal’s guidelines.
Searching for Articles
Now let’s say that you are familiar with an article or an author and are looking for the journal in which the corresponding research paper exists.
- You can either search for the article title or even type in a terminology/phrase that you know is a part of the article.
- Refine your search by selecting either Title, Abstract, Author, or Subject from the dropdown menu.
- Here, the left-hand side menu provides features of Subjects, Journals, and Publication Year to narrow down your search.
- The search results will give you a link to the article, mention the publisher details, and redirect you to the journal’s website.
List of Publishers Supporting Open Access Journals
With open access publishing evolving and shaping how research is shared and accessed, many large publications support open access journals. Below are 5 popular—and reliable—publishers for you to consider.
PLOS One2
This journal is a well-established popular publication that covers over 200 subject areas across engineering, medicine, science, social sciences, and humanities. It publishes multidisciplinary as well as interdisciplinary research papers and is known for a rigorous review process.
Taylor & Francis3
Taylor & Francis support both subscription-based and open access journals. The website’s portfolio lets you filter the journals based on subject areas, including Bioscience, Engineering & Technology, Physical Sciences, Behavioral Sciences, and Healthcare, among others.
They also have a category of “Open Select Journals,” wherein you can choose to publish your research paper under open access only if you wish to. If not, your research will be categorized under paywalled content and accessible only for subscribed users.
Wiley4
Wiley author services charge certain APCs and make your research freely available on their open access or hybrid open access journals. Depending on the subject area, the APCs vary from $1,000 to nearly $6,000. Sounds expensive? Do not worry, these APCs can be covered by your research institutions or funders that offer research grants.
Elsevier5
Searching for open access journals on Elsevier is quite straightforward. You can filter the search based on 4 main subject areas (Health, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences & Humanities), which are further divided into sub-disciplines.
Then, select the access type (Hybrid Open Access, Open Access, and Subscription) along with other metrics such as acceptance rate, impact factor, and CiteScore. The results provide a list of journals along with their individual APCs and applicable waivers and discounts.
Springer6
Since 2010, the SpringerOpen portfolio has been actively supporting researchers from science, medicine, technology, humanities, social sciences, and other disciplines to publish in open access journals. They have a wide range of journals that can be explored either alphabetically or based on the subject area.
If you are looking for more specific assistance, their Journal Suggester can help you shortlist open access journals. All you have to do is share your manuscript title, abstract, or keywords in the search window and browse the journals suggested to identify the most relevant one for your research.
Key Takeaway
Many funders, institutions, and even government organizations require researchers to publish in open access journals. While you may have some concerns about this, especially with the rampant problem of predatory publishing, it is important to clarify the misconceptions and embrace this publishing model to move ahead in the scientific community.
References
1. Directory of Open Access Journals https://doaj.org/
2. PLOS One https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/journal-information
3. Taylor & Francis https://www.tandfonline.com/openaccess/openjournals
4. Wiley https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/open-access/index.html
5. Elsevier https://www.elsevier.com/products/journals?query=&page=1&sortBy=relevance
6. Springer https://www.springeropen.com/
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